Anarchy Can’t Fight Alone

Kuwasi Balagoon

Of all ideologies, anarchy is the one that addresses liberty and equalitarian relations in a real-
istic and ultimate fashion. It is consistent with each individual having an opportunity to live a
complete and total life, With anarchy, the society as a whole not only maintains itself at an equal
expense to all, but progresses in a creative process unhindered by any class, caste or party. This
is because the goals of anarchy don’t include replacing one ruling class with another, neither
in the guise of a fairer boss or as a party. This is key because this is what separates anarchist
revolutionaries from Maoist, socialist and nationalist revolutionaries who from the onset do not
embrace complete revolution. They cannot envision a truly free and equalitarian society and
must to some extent embrace the socialization process that makes exploitation and oppression
possible and prevalent in the first place.
When I first became a revolutionary and accepted the doctrine of nationalism as a response
to genocide practiced by the United States government, I knew as I do now that the only way to
end the evil practices of the US was to crush the government and the ruling class that shielded
itself through that government was through protracted guerrilla warfare.
Armed with that knowledge, I set out the initial organizing of the Black Panther Party until
the state’s escalation of the war against the Black people that was begun with the invasion of
Africa to capture slaves made it clear to me that to survive and contribute I would have to go
underground and literally fight.
Once captured for armed robbery, I had the opportunity to see the weakness of the movement
and put the state’s offensive in perspective. First, the state rounded up all the organizers pointed
out to it by agents who had infiltrated the party as soon as it had begun organizing in N.Y. It
charged these people with conspiracy and demanded bails so high that the party turned away
from its purposes of liberation of the black colony to fund raising. At that point, leadership was
imported rather than developed locally and the situation deteriorated quickly and sharply. Those
who were bailed out were those chosen by the leadership, regardless of the wishes of the rank
and file or fellow prisoners of war, or regardless of the relatively low bail of at least one proven
comrade.
Under their leadership, “political consequences” (attacks) against occupation forces ceased al-
together. Only a Fraction of the money collected for the Purpose of bail went towards bail. The
leaders began to live high off the hog while the rank and file sold papers, were filtered out leaving
behind so many robots who wouldn’t challenge policy until those in jail publicly denounced the
leadership.
How could a few jerks divert so much purpose and energy for so long? How could they neu-
tralize the courage and intellect of the cadre? The answers to these questions are that the cadre
accepted their leadership and accepted their command regardless of what their intellect had or
had not made clear to them. The true democratic process which they were willing to die for, for
the sake of their children, they would not claim for themselves.
These are the same reasons that the people’s Republic of China supported UNITA and the reac-
tionary South African government in Angola; that the war continued in Southeast Asia after the
Americans had done the bird; why the Soviet Union, the product of the first Socialist revolution
is not providing the argument that it should and could through being a model
This is not to say that the people of the Soviet Union, the People’s Republic of China, Zimbabwe
or Cuba aren’t better off Because of the struggles they endured. It is to say that the only way to
make a dictatorship of the proletariat Is to elevate everyone to being proletariat and deflate all the
advantages of power that translate into the wills of a few dictating to the majority the possibility
must be prevented of any individual or group of individuals being able to enforce their wills over
any other individual’s private life Or to extract social consequences for behavior preferences or
ideas.
Only an anarchist revolution has on its agenda to deal with these goals. This Would seem
to galvanize the working class, déclassé intellectuals, colonized third world nations and some
members of the petty bourgeois and alright bourgeoise. But this is not the case.
That China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Mozambique would build round a Marxist ideology to
drive out invaders and rebuild feudal economies in the midst of western imperialisms designs and
efforts to reinvade and recolonize is a point that can be argued in the light of the international
situation it is one thing that they don’t back the will of the people as much as they chose allies
in the East- West wars fought on the ground of the non-white colonies. It is another thing that
Anarchy ceases to inflame or take the lead in combating fascism and imperialism here in North
America with the history of the Wobblies, the western federation of minors and other groups who
have made their mark on history. It is a denial of our historic task, the betrayal of Anarchists who
died resisting tyranny in the past, malingering in the face of horrible conditions. It is the theft of
an option to the next generation and forfeiture of our own lives through faint hearts.
We permit people of other ideologies to define Anarchy rather than bring our views to the
masses and provide models to show the contrary. We permit corporations to not only lay off
workers and to threaten the balance of workers while cutting their salaries, but to poison the
air and water to boot. We permit the police, Klan and Nazis to terrorize whatever sector of the
population they wish without repaying them back in any kind. In short, by not engaging in mass
organizing and delivering war to the oppressors we become Anarchists in name only.
Because Marxists and nationalists ain’t doing this to a large extent doesn’t make it any less a
shame. Our inactivity creates a void that this police state with its reactionary press and definite
goals are filling. The parts of people’s lives supposedly touched by mass organizing and revolu-
tionary inspiration that sheds a light that encourages them to unveil a new day, instead are being
manipulated by conditions of which apathy is no less a part than poisonous uncontested reac-
tionary propaganda. To those who believe in a centralized party with a program for the masses
this might mean whatever their subjective analysis permits. But to us who truly believe in the

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masses and believe that they should have their lives in their hands and know that freedom is a
habit, this can only mean that we have far to go.
In the aftermath of the Overtown rebellion, the Cuban community conceded as lost souls by
Castro came out clearly in support of the Black colony. And predictably the Ku Klux Klan, through
an Honorary FBI agent Bill Wilkenson, made no bones about supporting the rights of businesses
and the business of imperialism. Third World colonies throughout the United States face genocide
and it is time for anarchists to join the oppressed combat against the oppressors. We must support
in words and actions, self-determination, and self-defense for third world peoples.
It is beside the point whether Black, Puerto Rican, Native American and Chicano- Mexicano
people endorse nationalism as a vehicle for self-determination or agree with anarchism as being
the only road to self-determination. As revolutionaries we must support the will of the masses.
It is not only racism but compliance with the enemy to stand outside of the social arena and
permit America to continue to practice genocide against the third world captive colonies because
although they resist, they don’t agree with us. If we truly know that Anarchy is the best way of
life for all people, we must promote it, defend it and know that the people who are as smart as
we are will accept it. To expect people-to accept this, while they are being wiped out as a nation
without allies ready to put out on the line what they already have on the line is crazy.
Where we live and work, we must Not only escalate discussion and study Groups, we must also
organize on the ground level. The landlords must be contested through rent strikes and rather
than develop strategies to pay the rent, we should develop strategies to take the buildings. We
must not only recognize the squatters movement for what it is, but support and embrace it. Set
up communes in abandoned buildings, sell scrap cars and aluminum cans. Turn vacant lots into
gardens. When our children grow out of clothes, we should have places where we can take them,
clearly marked anarchist clothing exchanges and have no bones about looking for clothing there
first. And of course we should relearn how to preserve food; we must learn construction and
ways to take back our lives, help each other move and stay in shape.
Let’s keep the American and Canadian flags flying at half mast… I refuse to believe that Direct
Action has been captured.

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 The Anarchist Library
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Kuwasi Balagoon
Anarchy Can’t Fight Alone

www.kersplebedeb.com

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